Queensland Eye Institute Scientific Committee (QEI-SC)

Background

The Queensland Eye Institute’s Scientific Committee (QEI-SC) is a fundamental element of research governance for the research activities conducted at QEI, together with the QEI Human Research Ethics Committee, henceforth QEI-HREC (both established during 2010).

The existence and activity of the QEI-SC is essential, as the scientific merit of research projects involving human participants is a pre-requisite for applications to the QEI-HREC.

Role

The role of the QEI-SC is to assess the scientific merit of (i) any new research project proposed by the QEI’s staff, regardless of its scope, presented on the SC template; (ii) any research grant application intended for submission by any of the QEI’s staff, presented in a draft version; and (iii) any research undertaken at QEI by honorary appointees, visiting research staff, students, and all external collaborators in general, presented as written notifications.

This is an internal review process that must precede any external assessment provided, for instance, by grant assessors.

Any proposal coming from a committee member shall be treated as any other proposal coming from non-member staff. A decision on a submission from a member of the committee will be made by the remaining committee’s members.

This process is not designed as a “bureaucratic obstacle”, but to assist researchers by peer-review and to possibly improve the research design.

Proceedings

The QEI-SC will accept proposals, which are prepared using the template provided, submitted electronically to the Chair, who will then distribute the proposal to each member of the SC. Each member will send to the chair their comments, objections and suggestions. The Chair will send to the proponent a list of objections. Upon receiving a response, the Chair will make a decision that will be sent to the SC members for confirmation. Following a final decision, the Chair will prepare and send a formal letter to the proponent.